BY Hugo Odiogor
LAGOS — Ahead of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s resumption as Finance Minister this week, government officials and members of the organised private sector are bracing up for the tough fiscal policy and macro-economic reforms that would guide the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan.

Informed sources told Vanguard yesterday that the administration of Jonathan has been befuddled by lack of direction in macro-economic management at a crucial stage of national and global economic turmoil in the financial sector and a rash of policy kamikaze by regulators of the country’s financial sector.

Sources said: “As you know Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is still clearing her desk in Washington but we expect her return this week to head the economic team of this administration. She is determined to carry out fiscal and neo-liberal reforms, which will reduce wastages in public finance where over N3.6 trillion has been expended by the three tiers of government in the past 18 months, without any commensurate returns.

“She has the full support of Mr. President as she made it clear that her participation in government will be to enthrone a new regime of fiscal discipline in management of public finance.”

There is anxiety within government and organised private sector especially in government Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, where “she plans to straighten things out by introducing measures that will simplify the process of governance as well as strengthen public institutions in line with neo-liberal principles.”

She is also expected to provide a roadmap to stimulate the real sector of the economy but she faces challenges from those who want to maintain status quo and are opposed to any form of change. Apart from the institutional reforms expected, the Finance Minister is expected to sanitise the Small and Medium Scale enterprise sector, where N199 billion is alleged to have been disbursed by the Bank of Industry, without appropriate response from the sector.

The administration of Dr. Jonathan needs a road map to stimulate economic growth, and according to the source, “so far that is lacking and we expect that Dr. Okonjo- Iweala will fill the gap.”

The source added that, “the financial sector rues her absence as the rascality of policy measures being churned out by the Central Bank has created uncertainty in the sector while the events in Europe and American financial sectors require guided policy response, which are so far lacking”.